Anime Me! Reviews

For the next few months I will offer up a suggestion of my own personal anime favorites as well as other thought-provoking stories. First, Anime in the English sense usually refers to a style of animation originating in Japan. It is heavily influenced by the manga (Japanese comics) style and typically featuring characters with large eyes, big hair, long arms and legs, and lots of exaggerated facial expressions, among others. The word in Japanese, means “animation” in general, and is typically pronounced “a-nim-may” in English.

It has a large appeal in Japan and gaining a high recognition to the rest of the world. Most notably gaining popularity in the US. While TV stations such as Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim has been airing anime for years. There has been an increase of networks airing anime more often. With that said, it is not a recent phenom. The 1980’s have been widely considered the golden age of anime on American TV. Most anime is released via television broadcasts, direct to video, or even in theaters. You will also find anime content online.

Even someone who says they have never seen anime before will undoubtedly have been exposed to it in one form or another. Even grand-parents have heard of Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh, even if most can’t pronounce them correctly :). While these are forms of anime, these are examples aimed at a young audience. Turn on your local saturday morning cartoons. Undoubtedly you will find at least 2-3 english-dubbed anime.

Anime itself comes in all shapes and sizes. Different demographic groups like Kodomo (children), Shonen (male 10-18), Shojo (female 10-18), Seinen (male 18-30), and Josei (female 18-30), will also have different genres like Harem, Magical Girl, Mecha, Sentai, Yaoi, and Yuri, to name a few. I want to go over what each genres is about, but that will have to wait for another day.

For now, don’t get me wrong, not all anime is for kids and some of the genres above can be down right inappropriate for children. Now I am not being grumpy. Just keep in mind the demographic groupings and take them seriously. Think of it this way, a responsible parent wouldn’t take an 8 year old to an R-movie. Just like a responsible parent wouldn’t allow their 8 year old to watch/read a Seinen anime or manga.

My anime reviews will undoubtedly reveal some minor spoilers. Though I promise not to give any major story arc away. I want you the viewer to go into anime with an open mind, and see them as I do. With that being said, I hope you enjoy the coming weeks as I review and comment on not only popular anime, but some that you may have never heard of.

I encourage you the viewer to list any favorite anime you may have here. The idea is to spark a conversation and raise awareness of anime that the main stream US may have not heard of yet!